History

This ancient Greek figure from the 2,500 year-old Douris Cup looks uncannily like someone working on a laptop! 😲 💻 He’s actually writing with a stylus on a hinged wax writing tablet! The technology has changed, the posture has not! 😂 Altes Museum, Berlin 📷 by me #Archaeology

— Alison Fisk (@AlisonFisk) October 5, 2026

 

An Insight

Oh I noticed.

— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) October 3, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

this is pretty amazing discovery AI agents just found two room temperature magnetic semiconductor candidates A team of Claude Opus 5.5 agents designed one entirely new material and rediscovered another made in 1999 that could enable next generation spintronic memory, potentially combining semiconductor behavior, spin sorting, near zero stray magnetic fields, and operation above room temperature. "In 3 days, 90+ Opus 5.5 agents helped us uncover two room-temperature magnetic semiconductor candidates in simulations: YBaMnFeO₅ and KV[Cr(CN)₆]." One candidate remained magnetically ordered up to 376 K (103°C) experimentally. AI is starting to search the materials universe for technologies humans may have overlooked for decades. AI will revolutionize materials science

— Dr Singularity (@Dr_Singularity) October 5, 2026

 

Offbeat Humor

The British Mandate is now three territories. Palestine: 98% Sunni Muslim Jordan: 94% Sunni Muslim Israel: diverse mix of religions and races The two areas that are almost 100% Arab Sunni Muslim, claim Israel is an "ethnostate". https://t.co/7MPrEx3qFB

— SK Tedeschi (@skedeschi) October 4, 2026

 

Data Talks

Oh My!

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) October 2, 2026

 

Uskavi Kalkbrott, Sweden, 2024 by Jesper Hörberg

Uskavi Kalkbrott, Sweden, 2024 by Jesper Hörberg (Sweden, 1971 - ) 

Click to enlarge.

The "Jukes" Study and The Edwards/Bulkeley Counterpoint

Well, that's interesting.  

Sometime in Middle School or High School I read some story in English class in which "the Jukes family" was disparagingly referenced.  I had no idea who the Jukes family was and asked the teacher.  She explained they were a family notorious for a long line of idiots, criminals, and reprobates.  

Just the sort of random tidbits of knowledge you pick up as you go along.  I have probably seen some reference to the Jukes family another half dozen years in the following half century of reading.  Never an important piece of knowledge, but tucked away all along.

This evening, I am researching 8th great-grandmother Mary Bulkeley, born around 1646 or 1647 in Marshfield, Massachusetts; died December 2, 1700.  I have always been intrigued by the unusual name (English, Dutch, something else?) but this is the first time I have dug into her details.  

Turns out she was the daughter and granddaughter of a couple of prominent Puritan ministers and the whole Bulkeley family had some prominence in the early Puritan generations.  

But then I come across this:

The historical study regarding the inherited intellectual and professional achievements of the Bulkeley-Edwards family line is famously captured in A.E. Winship’s 1900 sociological and genealogical work, Jukes-Edwards: A Study in Education and Heredity.

The Context and Premise

In the late nineteenth century, American educators, scientists, and social reformers became intensely fascinated by the debate over nature versus nurture (heredity versus environment), largely sparked by Francis Galton's pioneering work on hereditary genius.

To test these theories, researchers looked at multi-generational family trees:

1. The "Jukes" Study (1877): Sociologist Richard L. Dugdale had published a notorious study on a pseudonymous upstate New York family—the "Jukes"—tracing over 1,000 descendants characterized by poverty, criminality, institutionalization, and illiteracy.

2. The Edwards/Bulkeley Counterpoint: Seeking a contrasting case study of exceptional hereditary achievement, American educator and journalist Albert E. Winship decided to trace the descendants of Reverend Jonathan Edwards (great-great-grandson of Peter Bulkeley via Elizabeth Bulkeley Edwards) and his wife, Sarah Pierpont.

The counterpoint to the Jukes were the Edwards/Bulkeley families.  

That insignificant pinpoint of knowledge about the Jukes family is now complimented by the entirely serendipitous discovery of a coincidental connection.  Odd bits and pieces.  

History

Analysis of satellite imagery reveals a series of previously unknown Roman military camps from Jordan to North Arabia. They are probably related to the AD 106 Campaign of Trajan which conquered the Nabataean kingdom and constituted the province of Arabia Petraea. https://t.co/KKxPKMPZ9e

— LiorLefineder (@lefineder) October 3, 2026

 

An Insight

“Self-inflicted diesel crisis” in Europe.

— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) October 2, 2026

 

I see wonderful things

The share of children who died before they were 5 years old in 1950 and 75 years later. Africa: 33% ↘ 6% Asia: 25% ↘ 2.5% Oceania: 9.3% ↘ 2% Latin America: 21% ↘ 1.5% Northern America: 3.8% ↘ 0.6% Europe: 10.5% ↘ 0.4% Globally: 23% ↘ 3.5% https://t.co/QMO6XHjp52

— Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) October 6, 2026